Exclusive Track Premiere: ‘Adrift,’ Kid Koala Ft. EmilÃ­ana Torrini

Loneliness and the feeling of wandering astray are sentiments with which most of us are able to commiserate. What about instances, though, where one is truly alone, literally beyond Earth’s orbit? For Kid Koala‘s fifth studio album, Music To Draw To: Satellite (out January 20 via Arts & Crafts), the Canadian musician, DJ, and graphic novelist, along with Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini, explored and captured this cosmic isolation.Kid Koala says that all of album’s 18 tracks—eight of which are lyrical and feature Torrini—were inspired by “how it might feel to leave your planet behind, and what it meant both literally and metaphorically.”

Here, we are pleased to premiere “Adrift,” a track from Satellite that gently gathers one into a mesmeric embrace—sweeping, vast, yet eerily empty, as though one were indeed adrift in space. Or, more specifically, adrift on a one-way mission to Mars.

This idea arose while the two artists were recording in Montreal. “We talked about all kinds of things like life, love, break-ups, losing family members close to you, fear, hope, light, darkness,” Kid Koala tells us. “When Emilíana told me about an article she had read about a woman who had signed up on a one-way mission to Mars and would leave her significant other behind forever … that story really struck a chord with us.”

The colossal barrenness that “Adrift” evokes is not unlike a Montreal winter. “Things sound different here in the winter because of all the snow,” says Kid Koala. “Even the city’s traffic noises are more muted. The pulse of everything is slower. You don’t hear any birds chirping. There [are] noticeably fewer and fewer daylight hours as each week passes.” It was this very stillness that he wanted to depict musically. “There are a handful of albums in my collection which I refer to as ‘drawing records.’ They are albums that kind of slow time down for me,” he continues. “When I started working on the instrumentals, I wanted to create something that could hopefully serve that purpose for someone out there.”

“Adrift” in particular revolves around “heavy times” for Kid Koala. “It gets a little bumpy for everyone at some point or other,” he says. “There are times when your only option is to lean on family and friends for support. There was a time when I was quite lost, and my wife Corinne would always be my voice of reason and my voice of comfort. I’m forever grateful to Corinne for standing by me this whole time. And I’m forever grateful to Emilíana for vocalizing that voice of reason on ‘Adrift.'”

MUSIC TO DRAW TO: SATELLITE (ARTS & CRAFTS)WILL BE RELEASED JANUARY 20, 2017. FOR MORE ON KID KOALA, VISIT HIS WEBSITE. FOR MORE ON EMILÍANA TORRINI, VISIT HER WEBSITE.